1. JAMES PAUL GEE
Created by: Melanie Sterling

2. Who is he?
 Instructor at
University of
Wisconsin
 Affiliate faculty
member of Games,
Learning, and
Society group.
 Member of National
Academy of
Education

3. Good Video Games & Good
Learning
 Researches ways to incorporate technology
into children’s learning.
 Believes gaming strategies can be used in
education.
 Engagement and challenge of video games
and it’s transfer to education.
 Video games are “Long, hard, and complex”
but still enjoyable.

4. Fifteen Principles
 Identity
 Interaction
 Production
 Risk Taking
 Customization
 Agency
 Well-Ordered Problems
 Challenge and Consolidation

5. Fifteen Principles cont.
 “Just-in-Time” and “On Demand”
 Situated Meanings
 Pleasantly Frustrating
 System Thinking
 Explore, Think Laterally, Rethink Goals
 Smart Tools and Distributed Knowledge
 Cross-Functional Teams

6.  Identity: Players fully commit themselves to
the role.
 Interaction: Players form gaming strategies
based on interactions with other players or
characters.
 Production: Players experience the game
based on their own decisions. Essentially,
each player produces their own game.

7.  Risk-taking: Good video games lower the
consequences caused from failure. Risks are
encouraged.
 Customization: Games provide different
difficulty levels and allow players to solve
problems in different ways.
 Agency: Players gain a sense of ownership.

8.  Well-Ordered Problems: Problems players
face are built to lead players to form strategies
that will work later, on harder problems.
 Challenge and Consolidation: Games allow
players to gain mastery, then requires them to
learn something new and consolidate their
skills.
 “Just-in-Time” and “On Demand”: Games
give verbal commands versus written.

9.  Situated Meanings: Games always situate
meanings of words in terms of actions, images
and dialogue.
 Pleasantly Frustrating: Game are “doable”
but challenging.
 System Thinking: Games encourage players
to think about relationships, not isolated
events.

10.  Explore, Think Literally, Rethink Goals:
Games encourage players to explore
thoroughly before moving on, thinking laterally
not just linearly.
 Smart Tools and Distributed Knowledge:
Players often work with other characters to
complete the game, knowledge and tools are
shared.
 Cross-Functional Teams: Many games
require players to be apart of multiplayer